I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!  If you follow me on Instagram then you saw that my husband majorly spoiled me all day long.  He woke me up with breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes — my fave) in bed, made another favorite of mine for lunch (homemade hearty tomato soup and a heart shaped grilled cheese), then made a delicious dinner with seared scallops and salmon with pesto.  For dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries and an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins.  My gift came a little early, so I got to open it last week.  He took a photo from our first dance at our wedding and got it made into a canvas!!  Kyle is such a thoughtful man.  It was the perfect Valentine’s Day and it just goes to show that you don’t have to spend a ton of money on a fancy dinner to have a great time.  A thoughtful gift from the heart goes a long way.

My parents also spoiled me this Valentine’s Day!! They got me the new Too Faced The Secret to No Makeup Makeup Fresh & Flawless Face Palette.  Whew!  That’s quite a name.    This palette was designed to be a one-stop-shop product to help you look like you just woke up looking perfect.  It comes with everything that you would need to emphasize and accentuate your own natural beauty.  So let’s get into the review!

The packaging is adorable and well-made.  It’s a metal tin with a magnetic closure that is sturdy, but easy to handle.  The palette is lightweight and compact in size making it perfect for travel and throwing in your purse for touch ups.  The lid will stay up on its own, but the mirror is pretty tiny.  I wish they wouldn’t have wasted the space in the lid by re-writing the super long name and used it for a bigger, more useful mirror.  It might just be me, but I cannot do my makeup in a mirror the size of a Band-Aid.  The mini-mirror would do the trick for an on-the-go touch up though.  And I’ll get to the cute little guide later in the post.

Like I mentioned before, this palette contains everything you need to create a flawless, natural looking face.  It includes:
–Bronzing Veil: A subtle, slightly shimmery bronzer to help you achieve that perfect glow
–Creme Blush: A rose-colored cream brush that can be used on the cheeks and lips
–Blush: A petal pink powder blush with a slight shimmer
–Concealer: A concealer that is a light, ideal texture for covering under eye circles; it’s yellow undertoned and should work on most light/medium skin tones
–Luminizer: A slightly pink cream highlighter that is perfect for drawing light to the high areas on your face-Brightener: A brightening concealer to lighten up areas for a more subtle highlight

I’ve swatched the products as they are laid out in the palette.  The brief individual reviews below are my impressions after swatching and using the palette this morning.
–Bronzing Veil:  After swatching the bronzer, I loved the smooth, buttery texture, but was afraid of the pale, slightly shimmery shade.  I generally think of bronzers as being matte and quite a bit darker than your natural skin tone.  I was, therefore, blown away when I used it as I would a contouring bronzer and found the effect to be this luminous, healthy glow.  It did contour my face, but in a subtle way that looked incredibly natural.  It didn’t leave me looking glittery, but simply radiant.
–Creme Blush: This cool toned, medium pink blush goes on creamy and smooth.  It’s super blendable and gives a very natural looking flush to the cheeks.  It can be used on the lips as well, but I recommend using it over/under a lip balm because it’s a bit dry for this purpose.
–Blush: When I swatched this, I was a little concerned by how many swipes it took to get the swatch this pigmented.  It seemed to be a little chalky and not very smooth.  It wears quite nicely though.  It is still a bit powdery, but it’s highly pigmented on the cheeks and adds a “just-walked-in-from-the-cold” color to your face after just one application. –Concealer: The color swatches lighter than it appears in the pan, and is actually pretty perfect for my yellow undertoned skin.  When I was swatching it, it seemed a bit oily, but as with everything else so far, I was pleasantly surprised when I wore as an under concealer.  It was creamy and light enough to look natural on this delicate area, but still had a decent amount of coverage.  I don’t think I’d reach for this concealer to mask blemishes or hyper pigmentation spots, but it does the trick for under the eyes and around the nose.
–Luminizer:  If you’ve been watching my videos lately, you’ll notice I’ve been addicted to my Urban Decay Urbanglow Cream Highlighter in Wicked, which is unfortunately discontinued.  This cream highlighter wears very similarly.  It’s velvety texture goes on smooth and the slightly warm tone keeps it from looking too harsh or unnatural.  It adds a gorgeous, dewy glow to the skin that instantly makes you look more awake and fresh faced.
–Brightener:  This brightening concealer also swatches lighter than it looks in the pan.  In the swatch it looks fairly matte and really opaque, but it has the perfect opacity for a natural looking highlighter.  It goes on creamy and actually has this subtle luminosity that keeps you from looking too “made up.”

This palette also comes with this cute little guide to help you create three different, fresh faced looks.  I love that this is provided because it allows you to branch out with these products and use them in ways you may not have thought of.  The drawings and keys are very easy to follow and do not involve a lot of verbal instructions without any kind of illustration (a la Smoked Palette Lookbook).  Whether you’re new to makeup or don’t speak English, you should still be able to get use out of this very user-friendly guide.

I think I’ll do a little mini series on this palette to recreate these looks.  Even if you don’t own or plan to own this particular palette, you can use your own products to get these flawless faced looks.  Once spring and especially summer hit, I’ll be reaching for this palette a lot.  I don’t like to wear a lot of makeup because it just feels and looks too heavy in the warmer months, but this palette will help me achieve a natural, flawless face without much effort.  After all, that’s what makeup is really for!  To make us look and feel like we just happened to wake up looking like that good.  We were all beautifully created in God’s own image, so we should be using makeup to highlight our natural beauty rather than mask it.  And the Too Faced No Makeup Makeup palette does just that.

Best & Blessings,